Blogs

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The Lean Builder

Defining Value to the Customer

One person's better value can be another's substandard. So how do you define value to the customer?

Best Practices

Fast track your strategies to successful implementation

I took a detour the last two years in my consulting career in residential home building by leading one of the largest real estate brokerage...

Great Solutions for Builders

J.D. Power scraps 2011 builder customer satisfaction study

We just caught wind of some big news on the customer satisfaction front: J.D. Power and Associates has canceled its 2011 U.S. New-Home...

Quality Management

Home Builder Scopes of Work

One of the keys to a successful builder and home is a strong set of scopes of work

Quality Management

Don’t service or process me, I am a customer

I am not a car nor am I a piece of meat, so please don’t service or process me, I am a customer! But those terms and attitudes still exist. ...

The Lean Builder

Consider True Value Before Switching Suppliers or Products

There's waste, and then there's waste-mistaken. Builders must learn the difference

Lean Design

Lean Construction Drawings: 4 Elements that should always be there and 1 that shouldn’t - Lean Tuesday with Todd Hallett

Plans, plans, plans, it’s sometimes difficult to know what they should include and what they shouldn’t. After spending the last two years...

Quality Management

Profiles of Deployment Success

How well are your values, policies and strategic drivers deployed within your organization? To consider this let use quality management as...

Quality Management

The Quality Management Environment

There are 4 key areas that make up the Quality Management Environment. Core Values Corporate Strategy Quality Performance Excellence...

Great Solutions for Builders

Technology survey: 10 minutes of your time for a chance at $50

If you are a home builder or residential designer/architect using mobile devices and other technology for business applications, we want to...

Quality Management

Implementing Change

As more organizations are being pushed to reduce costs while improving the quality of products so the management of change becomes more and...

Lean Design

Lean Design is Infectious

Monday morning 6:30 a.m. Jeff the lead carpenter rolls out the latest set of prints for the new Thornberry model. He sighs as he scans the...

Quality Management

Social Responsibility ISO26000 and Sustainable Buildings

As new technologies and methodologies help us to improve our sustainable and environmentally friendly buildings, we should not forget that...

The Sweet Spot

Share your opinions on Technology and Win a Visa gift card

We're collecting information about how remodelers use technology for an upcoming issue of Professional Remodeler magazine.As a special...

Quality Management

Builder NHQA Best Practices Table & Quality Tools Table

One of the key difficulties any builder has in managing quality is deciding which quality tools to use at which point in time and more...

The Sweet Spot

Lead paint rules hurting the good guys

The EPA’s LRRP lead paint rules put us, as an industry, in an awkward place. We have a rule that is, by all accounts, increasing the...

Quality Management

Writing a successful NHQA application

The NHQA application document is not simply the method of applying for the NHQA, it is an excellent overview of your business and a key...

Quality Management

Addressing a NHQA feedback report: opportunities for improvement

Receiving a NHQA feedback report can result in a freeze due the amount of Opportunities for Improvement (OFI’s) reported, but remember even...

Quality Management

Before AND after: NHQA site visits

Making the cut for a National Housing Quality Award (NHQA) site visit is a major achievement, however, quite naturally many are anxious...

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Quality Management Systems (QMS)

A Quality Management System or QMS refers to what an organization does to manage its processes, or activities, so that its products or...

The Sweet Spot

Home ownership still goal for majority of Americans: N.Y. Times Poll

Almost 90 percent of Americans think owning a home is still an important part of the American dream, despite the current housing market.That...

Lean Design

Lean Design principle #1

The concept of lean architectural design is often misunderstood. Elimination of design- induced waste in both product and process is the...

Lean Design

Brownies, muffins and dollars

I must admit, as an architect involved heavily in the home building business for the last 20 years I have never come across the concept of ...

Lean Design

Is Lean Design the bigfoot of the architectural world?

“I thought I saw it once. Rooms designed in twelve foot dimensions, footing dimensions in 24” increments. Sheetrock scraps wouldn’t fill a...

Quality Management

ROI evidence of Baldrige impact: The foundation of the NHQA

This year 69 organizations have applied for the nation's highest recognition for organizational performance excellence the Malcom Baldrige...

Home Builders Institute's Schools to Skills Grant Application Open Through December

As Mortgage Rates Rise, Buyers Lose Purchasing Power

Renters Are Choosing Single-Family Homes for These Features